Emergency draw-bar.



A. A. BURKHARD & W. L McCLENNAN.

EMERGENCY DRAW BAR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 2. i917.

1,282,185 Patented 00t.22,1918.

U i TE STATES a r errors.

ALBERT ADAM BUBKHARD, OF WEST ALBANY, AND WILLIIAM JOSEPH MGCLENNAN, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK.

EMERGENCY DRAW-BAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Got. 22, 1918.

Application filed May 2, 1917. Serial No. 165,826.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALBERT ADAM BURK- HARD and VVILLIAM J osnrrr MOCLEnNAN, citizens of the United States, and residents of West Albany, in the county of Albany and State of New York, and Albany, n the county of Albany and State of New York, respectively, have invented. certaln new and useful Improvements in Emergency Draw- Bars, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to the draft appliances of railroad cars, and particularly to an emergency yoke ext-enslon or transom drawbar.

It has heretofore been the practice following the disablement of the draft-rigging or center-sills of the car to pass a heavy chain around some convenient portion of the car, connecting the chain to the coupler of an adjacent car, then hauling the disabled car to a division repair point or some point having the requisite machinery and the presses for making repairs. This practlce has been forbidden under the United States safety appliance laws, it being allowed only to the extent of enabling the removal of the car from the right-of-way to the nearest available point where it can be repaired. It is then necessary that such cars should await the arrival of a wrecking train to load the disabled car on to another car and thence transport the same to a large shop or make temporary repairs which will permit of car being hauled to the large shop. This all entails expense and delay, and it is the ob ect of the present invention to provide an appliance of an emergency character which may be applied to a disabled car which will enable it to be transported in the train to a large repair point. By the use of this appliance the cars may be coupled and uncoupled in the same manner as one of the usual construction, the difference being that there are no draft-rigging springs interposed between the coupler and the car.

The principal objection to the practice followed heretofore, which included the employment of a chain for securing the cars together, was the lack of means for preventing the ends of adjacent cars from coming so close together as to be likely to crush an employee. the law requiring that at all times there shall be a certain minimum distance between the ends of adjacent cars. Inasmuch as the lengths of couplers vary, we have provided means for securing the proper clearance between cars by adj ustably uniting the drawbar shank to the emergency yoke.

The invention will be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings in which,

Figure 1 is aside elevation of a coupler and emergency yoke or drawbar extension constructed in accordance with our invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the yoke without the coupler;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a slightly modified form, and,

Fig. 4c is a plan view of the construction shown in Fig. 3.

In the drawings the coupler is indicated at 10, the same being provided with a shank 11 and a butt 12, having a pair of vertical apertures adapted to accommodate fastening bolts 13, 14. Thebutt end of the coupler shank lies between the two arms 15, 16, of our novel drawbar extension. These arms are provided with a plurality of vertical registering apertures 17 through which the bolts 13, 14, are adapted to pass. The yoke thus formed extends rearwardly and terminates in a horizontal plate 18, having a central aperture 19, and bounded at front and back and top and bottom by vertical flanges or abutments 20, 21, 22, 23. These flanges are adapted to lie at the front and back of the body and truck bolsters, the king pin passing through the opening 19. To apply this emergency connection following the disablement of a car, it is only necessary to jack up the car to an extent sufficient to permit insertion of the rear end of the emergency device between the bolsters whereupon the car may be lowered and then towed in the usual manner to a repair point. In order to secure the proper spacing between the cars the drawbar will be connected to the emergency device at the proper point by utilizing the spaced apertures 17.

In the construction of Figs. 3 and 4 the parts remain the same except in that the rear end 24 has been constructed to conform to the standard center plate contour. This construction possesses several advantages in that it is not dependent upon the width of the bolsters for its secure connection, as is the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The construction of either of the tor-ins shown does not necessz :ily require the employme t of the king bolt ot' the car, although in tie construction of l and it is desirable to insert the king bolt in order to prevent lateral inc ement or displacement of the emergency connection from the center of the draw bar extension, one 1 the form of a yoke having a plurality oi apertures providing for the adjustable connection of a coupler butt thereto, another portionot' said extension being in the form of a plate adapted to be accommodated between the center plate of the body and truck bolsters and to be engaged by the car king pin.

In a device of the class described, the combination of a member, having a bifurcated forward end provided With a plurality oi spaced apertures, a coupler butt adapted to be accommodated in the bifurcated end and to be secured by utilizing one or more of said apertures, the rear end of said member being shaped to be accommodated between the body and truck bolsters of a car and to be secured therein by the car king pin, substantially as described.

Signed at Albany, State of New York, 35

this 24th day of April, A. D. 1917.

ALBERT ADAM BUR-KHAR-l). WILLIAM JOSEPH MCCLENNAN.

Witnesses W. C. CAMPBELL, hiliinonnnr G. MCCLENNAN.

Copies of this patent be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner oi Eatents, Washington, it. 

